1/4 comma Meantone

[Richard Moody]

----- Original Message -----
From: <A440A@AOL.COM>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2001 7:31 PM
Subject: Re: Square Grand/HT Temperaments


| I think there is rarely a need to
| go all the way to 1/4 Comma.
| Regards,
| Ed Foote RPT

Since many if not most church organs, in England in particular,  if people
like Braid White are correct,  were tuned in Meantone up until the 1850's.
Meantone may have been the universal temperament until ET assended.  If a
person is into historical temperaments, the most historical of them all has
to be Meantone.
    But I am dying to see how modern musicans would take to it.  With its
pure thirds I think it would be great for singers esp of the folk or
country and western genere.   It does very well in the minor keys.  You
have not heard "Greensleaves" until you have heard it in MT.  "Amazing
Grace" is truly amazing.  All of the carols and hymns take on a "new
character".    I would like to hear someone like Emy Lou Harris do a
Christmas album with just her and a piano tuned to MT.  Or hear MT with the
singer who sang the accompanying music for the photos of Ground Zero on TV
the other night.
    In the "right" keys MT is a new musical experience for our ET
accustomed ears. It is limited to the "close" key signatures.  The minor
keys sound more minor, the major keys seem more major, to my ears at least.
Certain kinds of music may fare better than others.   There must be some
chamber music with new musical dimensions that have not been heard until
played in MT.  Even Vivaldi with his modulations, there must be some pieces
that would really sound different if the harpsichord were tuned in
Meantone. And this is not subjective as with the other HT's, as in "do I
really hear a difference?.....yes--there--I think I heard something".
Because we have never heard pure 3rds on the piano, MT really captures the
ear.
    A final note, it can been seen from the theory that MT 5ths are
contracted twice as much as ET. Some may -think- this would not sound so
good but the opposite is true especially when the 5ths are part of 3 part
harmony.  A 5th sounded alone does sound sour but in a major or minor triad
and in any of the positions (inversions)  that sourness mysteriously turns
to sweetness.    ---ric